Teen’s Amazing Claymation Will Make You Quit Bacon

Animal advocates have been working hard to raise awareness about the plight of pigs on factory farms, and one talented teenager has taken on the task with a seriously impressive claymation telling the tragic story of their lives.

Undercover videos have exposed egregious abuse, in addition to practices that are considered perfectly standard on modern day farms, but these videos are filled with violence and horror that humans routinely inflict on animals and can be too graphic for many to stomach.

Through claymation and powerful narration, 13-year-old Kyle Kelleher has taken another approach to raise awareness about the suffering our demand for meat causes, telling a story through the eyes of a pig who spends her life on a factory farm before she is slaughtered. Watch the amazing claymation here:

Sadly her story is one shared by millions of sows who are kept on factory farms, confined to gestation crates, or sow stalls, for most of their lives while they are repeatedly impregnated. After they give birth, they’re moved to farrowing crates where they’re separated from their babies by bars. In a natural setting, pigs are devoted, protective and nurturing mothers who build strong bonds with their young. Mothers are denied even that simple behavior, while her babies are soon taken away and mutilated without painkillers, or killed, as the cycle starts over.

The kind of intensive confinement pigs face is considered to be the worst forms of cruelty inflicted on animals in agriculture today. They are left without the ability to even move more than a few inches in any direction, which causes both physical and psychological stress for these incredibly intelligent, social and sensitive animals who have cognitive abilities that can potentially surpass those of a 3-year-old human child.

Fortunately it looks like their plight is reaching the hearts and minds of people of all ages who continue to speak out on their behalf and share the myriad of reasons we should leave pork off of our plates.

Growing awareness among consumers has led to some changes in the way things are done. Nine states have banned gestation crates, while a number of major food companies are working towards phasing them out of their supply chains, including Safeway, which made the move earlier this month.

Last week, Tyson Foods, the second largest pork producer in the U.S., also announced it would be recommending new animal welfare guidelines for its pork producers following the release of graphic undercover footage taken by Mercy for Animals (MFA) and subsequent pressure from consumers and shareholders.

According to a letter sent from Tyson to its producers, the company is recommending that they increase spacing, provide pain management during castration and tail docking, install a video monitoring system to improve oversight and, last but not least, stop killing piglets by slamming their heads against the ground.

Nathan Runkle, MFA’s executive director, called Tyson’s move to address cruelty heartening and told NBC that MFA is urging the company to “add more teeth” to the guidelines by making them mandates, instead of just recommendations. The organization is also reminding people that the easiest way to help pigs is to pass on pork.

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117 comments

I hope this girl will go on with her work after she ends the school too. I have seen so much in real life years back about what animals have to live with and die for just because humans don't want accept they have feelings just like us and that made me a vegetarian 20 years ago. We have no right to treat other living species in the foodindustry like they are without feelings and just here for us to eat.

Wow...that claymation was rife with lies and exaggerations. I respect anyone's choice to be vegan but at least make that choice based on facts....and vegans should respect the choices of others...but I do agree there should be no willful neglect or deliberate cause of unnecessary suffering.
The second biggest source of animal suffering caused by humans next to factory farms is pet ownership...even if you think your pet is well taken care of, pets are denied expression of every natural instinct they have which is cruel psychological abuse...not to mention the terrible amount of suffering put upon pets through willful neglect...so to end this suffering we should ban all pet ownership.

I'm so hurt right now, just sitting here crying my eyes out. Why do people still refuse to go vegan or at least vegetarian?? I don't understand. Are your taste buds more important than these pigs all the other farm animals?? I KNOW most people don't support animal abuse, I KNOW most people love animals and want them to be happy, BUT unless you stop eating meat, you're supporting this cruelty!!! Realize that please!!! Free-range is cruel too, do some research to find out!!!

PLEASE go veg for the animals!!!! There are vegan alternatives to meat (and dairy and eggs). One step at a time and everyone can make it! Think about the animals, the planet, your health, and your children and grand-children, do you want them to feel ashamed of your diet someday in the future?? Because I do feel ashamed of my parents and grandparents diet and I won't forgive them for raising me with animal products!!! I had a log talk with them and they're trying to go vegetarian, let's hope they make it! The younger generation is and will be different, here's the perfect example of a 13 year old with great insight and compassion.

THIS is not about winning a silly argument in the internet. It's about slavery and pain and torture. THIS IS WRONG. These animals are born JUST to suffer and die for the sake of meat. Do you realize?! Do you?! PLEASE do the right thing and stop this endless suffering. If WE don't speak up, if WE don't change this, NO ONE will because big corporations only care about money. P

This was amazing and powerful. Hopefully it will reach out to people that still eat meat, not just be preaching to the choir.
I know is no places the law became that pigs had to be kept in a pen that they can move around it but a few added inches doesn't have much of an affect on al the other things done to them.